By Adedapo Adesanya
The value of securities on the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange increased by 2.78 per cent last week as a result of the growth recorded by four companies on the trading platform.
These firms were Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, Nipco Plc, and Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc.
On the part of NIPCO, it gained 10.00 per cent to close the week at N73.70 per unit compared with the previous N67 per unit. Friesland appreciated by 5.90 per cent to finish the week at N128.50 per unit in contrast to the previous N121.23 per cent.
In addition, CSCS improved by 5.90 per cent to settle at N18.56 per share as against the previous N17.53 per share, while NDEP gained 2.60 per cent to sell for N300 per share versus the preceding week’s N292.48 per share.
These stocks expanded the value of the exchange by N14.87 billion last week to N549.61 billion from N534.74 billion and increased the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) by 20.92 points to 773.22 points from the previous 752.30 points.
Despite the gains, the NASD Exchange witnessed a price decliner and this was the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, which dropped 1.80 per cent to trade at N20.80 per unit compared with N21.17 per unit of the earlier week.
In the 22nd trading week of the year, there was a 70.2 per cent decrease in the total value of securities transacted by investors as shares worth N22.2 million exchanged hands in contrast to N744. 3 million of the previous week.
In the same vein, the volume of shares traded by the market participants went down by 26.3 per cent to 12.5 million units from 24.8 million units of the previous week.
Likewise, there was a 13.7 per cent decline in the number of deals as 202 deals were executed compared with the 234 deals of the preceding week.
At the close of the week, NGX Group was the most traded securities by volume with 8.1 million units. Lighthouse Financial Services Plc traded 3.4 million units, CSCS Plc exchanged 461,085 units, Friesland transacted 109,875 units, while Nipco Plc traded 100,000 units.
In terms of the value of trades in the week, NGX Group topped with N164.9 million, NDEP Plc traded N14.6 million, Friesland posted N13.1 million, Nipco Plc recorded N8.4 million, while Nipco Plc had N7.4 million.
So far in the year, investors have traded a total of 368,556,255 securities worth N8.1 billion in 2076 deals, according to data obtained by Business Post.
